Wolf Love is Cool

Wolf Alice. They’re the band on everyone’s lips off the back of a huge year. They’ve released their debut LP, played high profile festival slots on Glastonbury, SxSW, Splendour in the Grass and Outside Lands’ stages. On top of that, they’ve featured on KEXP, Conan O’Brien and more. Their unique sound has impressed fans worldwide and their crowd at Splendour in the Grass was no different. Kyle Butcher caught up with Wolf Alice the day after their Splendour set to talk about what the end of 2015 has in store for them.

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I sat down in a booth alongside the band in a homely tavern styled restaurant-come-bar in Brisbane. They were chatting about how much they enjoyed playing Splendour the day prior.

“It was amazing. We were just saying it was a really good festival. It’s probably one of my favourite festivals this year.” Ellie said.

“The Ampitheatre looked like a warzone when we played it. It was insane.” Joff said, and you could tell just how much the band enjoyed their time at the festival.

“Most of us (artists) were in this one really cool hotel. That type of vibe is great. You get to have parties and hang. And beg people to drink with you. ‘Can I come in to your room please?’ ‘No!’ ‘Pleeease?’ ‘No!’” Theo’s re-enactment of the night prior elicited laugher from his bandmates.

I questioned whether he truly found no-one up for a drink.

“Well, no one I wanted to drink with. I was looking for Azealia Banks really, because I wanted to talk to her about a few things that have been noted… slagging off Kendrick Lamar…” Theo laughed.

The conversation turned back to the release of their debut LP My Love Is Cool, some five weeks prior. The band signed over 2000 sparkling gold vinyl copies of their album for the fans lucky enough to preorder the album. I asked what process they used to sign the huge stack of records.

“Oh yeah, that was long,” Joff remembered.

“There were a few of them. We literally sat in our rehearsal space and did them one, by one, by one.”

“We tried to individualise a few of them, so whoever has a mobile number, call that number!” Theo laughed.

“Remember when we bought a phone, and we got people to call us on tour?” Ellie interjected with a small laugh. “We were a lot smaller back then.” Joff mused.

“Yeah, that’s why we got like six phone calls! We should do that again.”

“On the UK Tour!”

“Or what about Skype?

“Or live faxing?”

The band laughed at the odd concept.

As we go to print, Wolf Alice are in America, and when we spoke, they mentioned that their next music video was to be filmed while they were there.

“Oh my god, yes, it’s going to go so well. Honestly, I’m buzzing about this video. If it goes the way it goes in my head, it’s going to look so good.” Theo enthused.

Next, the band is heading to Japan, where they will be playing SummerSonic festival alongside giants like Marilyn Manson and Pharrell Williams. They plan to hit up Tower Records before moving on to their next stop. Joel mentioned that the end isn’t near for their tour in support of My Love Is Cool.

“We’re heavily booked until Christmas. I was talking to my manager, and it turns out we’re booked up until, well, forever. I think it’s going to be one or two years of touring without breaks.”

The last time Wolf Alice were in Australia, they played on the Falls Festival 2014/15 lineup, before their My Love Is Cool was released. Now, with two festival tours to Australia under their belts, I wondered whether there was a chance in the near future for Wolf Alice to return independent of a festival to our shores.

“We’d love to, definitely!” Ellie confirmed with a smile.

“We’d like to go to the beach. We had more time off with Falls festival, but when we come back I’d love to have more time to do more things,” Joel added.

With that, our short conversation came to a close, and the band relaxed before a long flight over to Los Angeles early the next morning. Fingers crossed their next music video goes just as well as Theo hopes, and we get to see it in all its splendour sometime this year.